After having been produced, conventional integrated switching circuits can only be operated in an operating mode for which they are intended.
However, it may be desirable to keep the same integrated component suitable for several different applications and to select the respective intended mode of operation only after is has been produced, for example even after the chip has been encapsulated or enclosed in a housing.
It may also be desirable to fix the voltage values of the supply voltages for individual function blocks, a selection of certain function blocks, or a power-on sequence for certain function blocks or their initialisation, for example as part of a power-on sequence.
The described programming of an integrated component might be fixed retroactively, for example by fuse banks, DIP switches or the like.
However, all such known measures are associated with relatively high expense. This undesirable expense may be due to an increased footprint on a circuit board, for example, or a large number of extra pins required on the chip.